Friday, February 11, 2011

Our Faunt family has connected on several levels in the past two years. Cousins from the siblings of my Patrick Faunt who share William and Ellen as progenitors are sharing pieces of what we know. Two weeks ago the 1885 New Jersey census index was online and I found our family in somewhat different configurations than I saw in the 1880 census.

My Patrick , married to Mary Dugan and listed as "Patsy" is listed in two separate places, although both are him. William and Ellen and younger children are joined by Louisa Faunt.Louisa I had previously found in the 1900 census with a baby named Helen ( another variation of Ellen).I did not know who she was but her place in the 1885 census as a child less than 5 must signify she is a child of the family.

I have never been able to find Ellen Faunt's death but after William dies in February 1889 she marries Charles Schneider a Prussian born baker. Her daughters Jennie and Nelly are married in that decade. Is Ellen deceased by 1900? I think she may be and surely in 1911 when her son Michael passes away as his obituary so states.

Now I go on to look at the events posted here and wonder if the commitment of William Faunt to the state hospital signified in 1887 the end of the family living together? Did the deaths of the two children above cause a crisis in the family? They lost at least 4 children, one a first William in Belfast before they immigrated.Does the peace bond against Ellen Faunt predict or tell us anything?

Patrick Faunt married Mary Dugan in 1883.They lost at least one child also and Mary Dugan passes away in 1902. Edward Faunt my grandfather was less than 4 and Jesse was 2. Patrick as a single parent leaves something to be desired or maybe the times were just very tough. Grandpop told me nothing of those years except that evictions were constant and that the children often needed to run home from school to save their possessions which were at the curb.

He never said he was motherless but that surely played into his inability to cope with his own 4 children when Grandmother Retta dies at 25.

Was this a family in trouble between 1885 and William's death in 1889. What did "dementia " mean in this case? Did he have a stroke or was he a very heavy drinker? He was only 47 years old. Did his children take sides? Children of his younger brother William, who was affluent, know nothing about our family. William Faunt's children visited with Jennie and Nelly's families over the years.

Was my "Patsy " a drinker or a gambler? He marries again possibly twice and has two children Helen born in 1915 and George Patrick 1918. George Patrick Faunt is killed in WWII.

I don't know, maybe he just remained tied to Old Country ways because the Dugans, his in laws visited in Beverly and were know to us.. Surely poor Patsy was not successful. His wife Mary and his mother worked as Green Grocers both in Beverly and Philadelphia until their deaths, that part we do know.

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About Me

A South Jersey girl who somewhat recently retired to Northeast North Carolina after spending my whole life in a small town on the banks of the Delaware River.
My ancestors came here between 1643 and 1869 and did not move far from either the banks of the Delaware River or the Chesapeake Bay.